Daily Archives: July 21, 2022

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and former President Donald Trump. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Scott Bauer/AP, AP)

The speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, Robin Vos, said former President Donald Trump called on him to decertify the 2020 election results in the state last week, more than a year and a half since the race was called for Joe Biden.

In an interview with WISN Channel 12 Milwaukee, the states most powerful Republican said he had talked to Trump within the last week and described the conversation as, Its one of those things thats very consistent. He makes his case, which I respect, he would like us to do something different in Wisconsin, I explained its not allowed under the constitution, he has a different opinion, then he put the tweet out, so thats it.

After the conversation with Vos, Trump wrote in a July 13 post on Truth Social, "Looks like Speaker Robin Vos, a long time professional RINO always looking to guard his flank, will be doing nothing about the amazing Wisconsin Supreme Court decision. RINO, meaning "Republican in Name Only," is used as an insult in intraparty conflicts.

The court decision that Trump was referring to was a July 8 ruling that made most absentee drop boxes in the state illegal in future elections. The former president, who continues to push the baseless conspiracy theory that he did not in fact lose the 2020 election, wanted Vos to use the Wisconsin ruling retroactively to decertify the race, which Trump lost to Biden by 20,000 votes after winning the state by a similarly tight margin in 2016.

Trump added that Vos was letting Democrats get away with murder and said Vos's comments were a waste of a brilliant and courageous decision by Wisconsins Highest Court.

Thanks to an extensive Republican gerrymander of its state Legislature, Vos essentially controls Wisconsin politics, and last year Politico referred to him as the shadow governor, even though a Democrat, Tony Evers, won the governors seat in 2018.

Vos talks to reporters on March 16 in Madison, Wis. (Scott Bauer/AP)

In a post Tuesday night, Trump threatened Vos ahead of the Aug. 9 Republican primary, writing, This is not a time for him to hide, but a time to act! I dont know his opponent in the upcoming Primary, but feel certain he will do well if Speaker Vos doesnt move with gusto. Robin, dont let the voters of Wisconsin down!

I think we all know Donald Trump is Donald Trump, Vos said in the WISN interview. Theres very little we can do to control or predict what he will do.

The view that the 2020 election was stolen is shared by a majority of Republicans, and the GOP nominees in both the Pennsylvania and Maryland gubernatorial races also deny that Biden won the presidency. The promotion of that false belief helped lead to the violence in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to stop the formal counting of the electoral votes. The riot left multiple people dead. The hearings of the House Jan. 6 committee have presented damning evidence that Trump planned and incited the events of that day, but whether he will actually face charges from the Justice Department is still unclear.

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Top Wisconsin Republican: Trump still asking me to decertify 2020 election

SINCE the 1800s, America has been widely known as a two-party system. The Republican and Democrat parties each have their own views and takes on the way the country should run.

The Republican party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is driven by a more conservative or right wing ideology and favours smaller government and tax cuts for all.

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While the Democratic party is more progressive or left wing meaning it advocates larger government and higher taxes for higher earners.

However, many of the parties key policies relate to the unique cultural fabric of America itself.

The right to keep and bear Arms is the 2nd Amendment of the US constitution a document which established the countrys national government in 1787.

This is by far the most controversial part of the constitution with the Republicans strongly opposing any form of gun control.

However, the Democrats, while still favouring gun ownership, want stricter controls on firearms such as automatic weapons.

There were over 20,000 gun murders in the US in 2020.

But conservative politicians claim that gun control doesn't work - pointing to states which have strict laws yet are plagued with violence.

Chicago is the most obvious example of this. There have been over 524 murders in Chicago in 2021 alone, majority of which are gun related.

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The GOP, which has a large Christian voting base, favours traditional marriage between a man and a woman.

However, the more socially progressive Democrats have in recent years pushed for same sex marriage which is now legal in every US state thanks to the Supreme Court which ruled that restricting marriage licenses would be unconstitutional.

But not all liberal politicians have supported gay marriage. Indeed, until recently, publicly supporting same sex unions was deemed risky when running for public office.

In 1996, Democratic President Bill Clinton signed the Defence of Marriage Act which prevented federal recognition of same-sex marriage.

For nearly a century, Democrats have had at least some form of healthcare reform on their agendas.

Democrats believe the government should take care of its people, providing them with basic necessities. In the Republican mindset, often the less government interference, the better.

Democrats push for quality and affordable healthcare for all citizens, and have been behind getting things like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Childrens Health Insurance Program passed into law.

Typically, the Republican party fights the Democratic party on each healthcare reform they propose. The Republican's believe the government shouldn't be involved with its citizens, as they are supporters of the free market.

Currently, the Affordable Healthcare Act is still in law and is being supported by President Joe Biden.

His healthcare plan states to build and protect on Obamacare, adding that he will be giving Americans more choice, reducing health care costs, and making the healthcare system less complex to navigate.

The Republican party broadly favours executing violent criminals while many Democrats oppose capital punishment although that has not always been the partys official stance.

The issue of the death penalty is a complex one. America remains one of the few western democracies which still executes people.

However, there were zero executions in the country between 1967 and 1977 thanks to a Supreme Court case relating to the eighth amendment which forbids cruel or unusual punishment.

And while the rate of executions steadily increased from that point peaking at 98 deaths in 1999 the number has now started to fall with only 28 in 2015.

While Hillary Clinton still favours the limited and rare use of the death penalty the Democratic National Committee favours abolishing the practice.

Joe Biden's plan for strengthening America's commitment to justice includes the elimination of the death penalty. His statement reads: "Because we cannot ensure we get death penalty cases right every time, Biden will work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal governments example. These individuals should instead serve life sentences without probation or parole."

As of 2021, the death penalty is still authorized in 27 states.

Traditionally, Democrats and Republicans feel extremely different about the economy.

For one, Democratic economy plans typically favor low-income and middle-income families. The belief on this end is that reducing income inequality stimulates economic growth, meaning people are more likely to spend than save and invest.

Democrats also support the idea that a government should pay itself out of a recession.

Republicans, on the other hand, push for supply-side economics that traditionally benefits businesses and investors.

Their argument is that tax cuts on businesses allow for the hiring of more workers, which in turn increases demand and growth.

Ironically, research suggests that economic growth is better under Democrats.

Republicans claim to be the "party of maximum economic freedom and the prosperity that freedom makes possible," by showing off their business-friendly approach and pursuing prosperity without government interference.

When Biden ran for president, he made promises of strengthening the middle class, extending healthcare, raising taxes on the wealthy, and investing trillions of dollars into green energy infrastructure.

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What is the difference between Republican and Democrat?

While there are distinct differences between Democrats and Republicans, that wasnt always the case.

By examining American political history, one can see that the two parties even had opposite beliefs from those they have today.

Since its common for political parties to cannibalize themselves or change over time, its important to understand political history to determine the differences between Democrats and Republicans.

Here are the major differences between the Democratic and Republican political parties.

The path the Democratic and Republican parties took to reach their modern platforms is different for each one.

The Democratic Party, at least in name, is older than the Republican Party.

It can trace its origins to the Anti-Federalist movement early in American history.

The Anti-Federalist Party included members like:

The Anti-Federalist Party was formed in protest against the Federalist Party.

The Federalist Party included members like:

The Federalists believed in a strong central government to oversee local governmental bodies.

They believed that it was the central governments job to improve the lives of its citizens and to create and enforce laws to do so.

The Anti-Federalists believed in strong local governments.

They believed that the central government should have little say in the matters of the states.

Instead, each state should determine laws and regulations according to its own needs and the needs of its people.

One might even say that the Anti-Federalists were a precursor to modern-day libertarians.

The Anti-Federalists took on the name of the Democratic-Republican party.

This party would continue in existence for some time although it would ultimately shorten its name to Democrats.

The Republican Party was formed in 1854 by individuals who had an interest in ending slavery.

This version of the Republican Party had one of its most famous members, Abraham Lincoln, become president.

The Republican Party changed following the election in 1912.

In fact, both parties changed.

In 1912, three presidential candidates were running for office.

Woodrow Wilson was running on the Democratic ticket.

Theodore Roosevelt was running on his own ticket called the Bull Moose Party.

Finally, former President Taft was running for election once more on the Republican ticket.

The Bull Moose Party was an offshoot of the Republican Party.

It was more liberal and supported certain regulations like conservation and higher regulations on big businesses.

This was separate from the Republican Party which, instead, wanted to end monopolies but still supported less regulation in the market.

The Democrats at this time were also starting to lean more liberal in their political ideas.

They supported regulation of the market, albeit not quite as radically as the Bull Moose Party.

The result was the victory of the Democrats and the elevation of Woodrow Wilson to the presidency.

Because Theodore Roosevelt, who had been a Republican, split the party, however, two different ideologies formed.

Those who had supported the Bull Moose Party considered themselves progressives.

As a result, they ended up joining the Democratic Party following their loss and threw their support behind more left-leaning policies.

This, in turn, transformed the party into the platform which supports its modern-day beliefs.

The Republican Party, on the other hand, grew more conservative and turned its focus to business interests and economic freedom.

Due to the split in 1912 which fractured the Republican Party, one might even say that the two parties switched their ideologies.

Both were mostly centrist in terms of their ideologies, but the split caused the Democrats to become more left-leaning and the Republicans to become more right-leaning.

Those divisions would only deepen over time.

One of the major differences between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party is each partys approach to the role in government that it has.

The Democratic Party, which now harkens more of a Federalist viewpoint, believes in a strong federal government.

Because it covers a large range of people with different backgrounds, religious beliefs, and sexual orientations, they believe its the federal governments job to ensure everyone receives fair treatment.

Local governments are too small or too skewed a certain way to ensure that fair treatment.

Thus, its the federal governments job to ensure and enforce fair treatment for everyone.

Democrats also prefer a larger federal body.

The more representation the federal government has, the more accurately it can represent the needs of everyone.

Republicans believe in something different.

Their thoughts are more similar to those of the Anti-Federalists.

They believe that the federal government shouldnt be as strong as it is.

In fact, they prefer to have fewer numbers in the government.

Instead, they believe that the bulk of power should come from local government offices and the states.

Each state should be able to pass and enforce laws according to its own needs and representations.

Its because of this belief in the role of the government that you see a lot of opposition on certain issues.

It all has to do with the governments role in the day-to-day lives of the American people.

Democrats and Republicans are different because Democrats believe in a large and powerful federal government whereas Republicans believe in a small and weak federal government with strong state governments instead.

A hot-button issue that both parties have differences on is the military.

Republicans tend to favor a strong military.

Because of that, theyre among those who support military funding increases.

Theyre also more willing to go to war, especially in countries in the Middle East.

Some of this may have to do with their supporters being mostly business owners.

Since Republicans like to consider themselves the party of business, they recognize the profit in war.

Any time the country goes to war, it puts people to work.

Guns and ammunition need to be manufactured and shipped.

Food rations need to be grown, harvested, and processed.

Clothes and uniforms and body armor also need to be produced.

Then theres the military, itself.

People without a job, without direction in life, or those who are looking to improve themselves, protect their country, or receive free secondary education can find employment in the military.

Some may even find a lasting career.

Because war is profitable for America, many Republicans support it.

Democrats, on the other hand, are less likely to support war and thus dont support the military as much.

They prefer a smaller military force and thus tend to promote cutting the military budget.

They believe in using that budget for bettering domestic society.

Democrats are less likely to go to war with Middle Eastern countries.

They instead prefer to use diplomacy, trade embargoes, and other tactics to prove points or to weaken an enemy.

Thats because Democrats tend to see themselves as the party for the people.

They look at war as a moral problem rather than something from which to profit.

The loss of life isnt worth the money that the country can make off of it.

Democrats and Republicans are different because of their stance on the military.

Republicans prefer a strong military and more funding for it whereas Democrats prefer a smaller military and less funding for it.

Perhaps one of the biggest issues that sees a distinct difference between Democrats and Republicans is their stance on gun control laws.

Republicans tend to support individual freedoms.

That means they believe that citizens can make their own decisions about guns.

In particular, theyre strong supporters of the Second Amendment which covers the right to bear arms.

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Democrat Vs. Republican (8 Differences Explained)

The way-too-early race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination has entered a new phase.

Though its still a long way off from anyone officially declaring their candidacy, former President Donald Trump has officially returned to the campaign trail and other would-be candidates are making more trips to early primary states to stump for Republicans there and speak with voters. Trump came in first in straw poll at theConservative Political Action Conference in Texas Sunday with 70%, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 21%, and a host of other potential candidates at 1% or less.

Back in April, Deseret News looked at the early field of potential 2024 Republican presidential candidates. Since then, some have begun making moves that suggest theyre serious about preparing for a possible run, while others have kept a lower profile. The possible candidates in this list are based on whos stayed in the news, traveled recently to Iowa or other early primary states, or finished high in a recent Western Conservative Summit straw poll.

Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he made up his mind about whether hell run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination again, but he didnt say what the answer is, keeping the 2024 field open, for now.

The former president held his first post-White House rally in Ohio on June 26 the first since his inflammatory Jan. 6 Save America rally that preceded the failed insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. Trump called it the first rally of the 2022 election, but no cable news network carried it live, not even Fox News.

President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Monroe Civic Center in Monroe, Louisiana, in November 2020.

Evan Vucci, Associated Press

The rally came in the middle of a busy few days in June for Trump. Trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had his law license suspended in the state of New York over his false and misleading claims about the 2020 election, and a week ago, The Trump Organization and its Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg were indicted on tax fraud charges and accused as part of a two-year investigation that began when Trump was still in office. Weisselberg and lawyers for the Trump Organization both pleaded not guilty.

The former president has reportedly told others that he wont have to wait until 2024 to return to the White House. The New York Times and other news outlets have reported that Trump expects to be reinstated as president by August.

Trump also made his first appearance on C-SPANs Presidential Historians Survey, coming in fourth-to-last in the survey of 142 historians, professors and other professional presidential observers.

DeSantis narrowly beat out Trump in a straw poll at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver last month, but his greatest strength could also prove to be his greatest weakness. Praised by Republicans as a next-generation Trump, it could put him on a collision course with Trump should both run.

DeSantis is up for reelection next year, and hes purposely avoided Iowa to not drive 2024 speculation, according to Politico. Still, hes building out a gubernatorial record sure to please primary voters. Name a top Republican issue today, chances are DeSantis has signed a bill and/or has run Facebook ads about it.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Feb. 26, 2021, in Orlando, Fla.

John Raoux, Associated Press

Hes signed bills banning vaccine passports, restricting ballot drop boxes and voting by mail, and setting mandates for civics curriculum in the state. Another bill prohibiting deplatforming was signed into law in May, but a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, arguing it likely violates social media networks First Amendment freedom of speech rights. Hes run Facebook ads about critical race theory and transgender athletes in sports.

But DeSantis has backed away from partisanship when responding to the building collapse in Surfside, Florida. The first-term governor welcomed President Joe Biden to the state last week when he visited to meet with families and survivors. Youve recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one and youve been very supportive, DeSantis said of Biden.

If youre curious how the former vice president might handle the fact that many of Trumps supporters think hes disloyal for certifying the 2020 election, his speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on June 24 laid out his argument.

Pence opened the speech with one of his favorite lines, in which he calls himself a Christian, conservative and Republican, in that order and then proceeded to spend the next 20 or so minutes praising Trump and the work of the Trump-Pence administration. We made America great again in just four years, he boasted. Then he finally touched on the attack. Jan. 6 was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol, he said.

Mike Pence speaks during a rally in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 10, 2016.

Pence said he would always be proud that elected officials reconvened to finish certifying the election after the riot, and he said he understood why many were disappointed in his tickets loss last year: I can relate, I was on the ballot. He also positioned his view on the election as one informed by Republican patriotism and love of the Constitution.

The Republican Party will always keep our oath to the Constitution, even when it would be politically expedient to do otherwise, he said. Theres almost no idea more un-American that any one person can choose the American president. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone.

He didnt dwell on Jan. 6 for long, though. We must not allow the Democrats and their allies in the media to use one tragic day to discredit the aspirations of millions of Americans, Pence said. Though some might find Pences position unenviable, hes building the case that hes the best-suited Trump successor, with a hand in the administrations conservative agenda but no part in his election denialism. Whether or not that will appeal to Republican primary voters down the road remains to be seen, but it definitely sets him apart in a field that so far seems defined by fealty to Trump.

Haley has changed her tone when it comes to Trump. After saying he let us down and lost any sort of political viability he was going to have following Jan. 6, Haley is, at least publicly, a fan again. During her remarks at the Iowa Republican Party dinner on June 24, Haley praised Trump and told a story about him asking if he should call Kim Jong Un little rocket man during his speech at the U.N. Haley said she cautioned him to treat the audience like church instead of a rally, but he went ahead and used the term.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks while campaigning for U.S Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., Monday, Oct. 12, 2020, in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Matt York, Associated Press

Haley even sounded kind of Trumpian during her speech, telling Republicans they were too nice. We have to be tough about how we fight, she said. We keep getting steamrolled and then whine and complain about it. The days of being nice should be over.

She also didnt shy away from her gender, opening the speech by saying, America needs more strong conservative women leaders and less of Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris, and praising female Iowa Republicans like U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and Gov. Kim Reynolds. I wear heels, Haley said. Its not for a fashion statement. I use it for kicking. But I always kick with a smile.

During his remarks at the Faith & Freedom Coalition Road to Majority conference in Florida last month, Cruz said that a conservative revival is coming and hearkened back to the Reagan revolution. It took Jimmy Carter to give us Ronald Reagan, he said. Joe Biden is Jimmy Carter 2.0. Left unsaid, but implied, is that Cruz sees himself as the Reagan 2.0 who will ensure Biden is a one-term president.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, heads to the floor as the Senate prepares for a key test vote on the For the People Act, a sweeping bill that would overhaul the election system and voting rights, at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, June 22, 2021.

Alex Brandon, Associated Press

Cruz said at that conference that having social conservative or patriotic views can get you canceled, and its time to fight back. He also recited a favorite quote from the late Andrew Breitbart who said politics is downstream from culture, and said the phrase was now outdated. Today, politics is culture, Cruz said, which might help explain why he signaled his support to free Britney Spears from her conservatorship the day after her court testimony.

Cruz has begun making endorsements in other races, including Susan Wright in the runoff for Texas 6th Congressional District later this month, as well as former Rep. Matt Salmon in Arizonas gubernatorial race next year. While Republicans are undoubtedly happy to have Cruzs support, Democrats like it, too, at least in Virginia, where fundraising emails from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe that mention Cruzs endorsement of his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin bring in big bucks, per the Dallas Morning News.

In the month of June, Pompeo tweeted the word pipehitter 18 times, and his political action committee CAVPAC short for Champion American Values PAC tweeted pipehitter another 16 times. Be a pipehitter, read one. All of us need to be Pipehitters. If youre a Pipehitter like us, join the team. What the heck is a pipehitter, though?

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gestures toward a reporter while speaking at the State Department in Washington on Nov. 10, 2020.

Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press

The word refers to members of special forces, though it has other slang definitions not suitable for a family news website, which inspired mockery online and from Stephen Colbert. According to Pompeo, though, a pipehitter is basically a Pompeo super fan. Facebook ads run by CAVPAC in Pompeos home state of Kansas and the four early primary/caucus states define pipehitter as someone who is unapologetically American, someone who fights for our future, someone who never gives an inch, someone who is dedicated to stand against the radical Lefts agenda.

In non-pipehitter news, a recent joint investigation by The New York Times and ProPublica found Pompeo has been the subject of Chinese propaganda campaign that included coordinated videos of Uyghurs calling Pompeos accusations of Chinese human rights abuses false. In January, the State Department declared that the Chinese Communist Party was committing genocide against Muslim Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang, and Pompeo called it the stain of the century.

One thing Scott has going for him that other potential 2024 contenders do not is a bunch of their endorsements. Scotts up for reelection next year, and in an ad kicking off his campaign released last week, Republicans including Cruz, Pompeo, Haley and Pence all backed his candidacy. Scott is positioning himself as a Trump-friendly conservative. In his ad, he included a clip of Trump calling him a friend of mine, and at a rally for his reelection, Scott said he wanted to make sure this wasnt a centrist crowd after asking them to boo Biden louder, according to The State.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., arrives as senators go to the chamber for votes at the Capitol in Washington on May 27, 2021.

J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

Cotton needs to work on his pushups. The 44-year-old senator did 22 pushups onstage at a Republican fundraiser in Iowa alongside Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and he barely had any depth. Grassleys werent any better, but he gets a pass for being 87 years old, and he runs four days a week. The contest was for a good cause: to raise awareness of the average 22 veterans a day who take their life.

Cottons remarks at the fundraiser were an early preview of what could become a campaign stump speech. He attacked Biden, critical race theory and China, according to KCCI in Des Moines. He also offered his full throated endorsement of the Iowa caucus, which is something candidates who want to win the Iowa caucus do.

U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., speaks at a North Little Rock, Ark., news conference on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014.

Danny Johnston, Associated Press

Why should there be any change to the Republicans first in the nation status just because the Democrats cant run a caucus? Cotton said, referencing Democrats delayed caucus results in 2020. Iowa has had this status now going back decades and that develops more than just a custom or habit, it develops a tradition of civic engagement unlike you see almost anywhere else in the country.

Noem is among the potential 2024 Republican presidential candidates whove been overshadowed recently by other top contenders, but shes back in the news over the border. Though Noems not a border state governor, she announced last week that shes sending up to 50 South Dakota National Guard members to Texas to secure the border at the request of Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

The tab is being picked up by an out-of-state megadonor whos also given to Trump and the NRA, according to The Washington Post. Its unclear if the arrangement is legal, experts who spoke to The New York Times said, and Gov. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., said the move sets a bad precedent.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks at the Sioux Falls City Hall in Sioux Falls, S.D., on June 22, 2020.

Stephen Groves, Associated Press

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2024 Republican candidate forecast: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Ron ...

Once in your life you probably mixed up the concepts republican and conservative, believing that they were the same. Even though they believe in similar things, these are very different concepts.

Keep on reading to discover whats the difference between republicans and conservatives.

For starters, no, a republican is not a synonym for a conservative person. They have pretty similar world and political views. However, theyre not necessarily the same. Some key details make them different.

So, to understand the difference between these two political stands, youll need to pay attention to some details and minor information. Lets see why conservatives are not the same as republicans.

The biggest and most important difference between them is that Republicans are members of a political party, the Republican Party of the United States of America, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP).

The conservatives are people who advocate for social conservatism and/or fiscal conservatism. There is a big variety of conservatives groups, which makes it hard to explicit who is who.

The United States has two major parties: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

Overall, the Republican Party is known as a conservative party a party that advocates for social conservatism and/or fiscal conservatism. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, advocates for progressivism, a political philosophy that supports social reforms.

Thats the reason why Republicans are known as conservative people. But that does not mean that every conservative person is a Republican.

Every country in the world has its own vision of what the conservative philosophy is.

The United States conservative philosophy is social and political that wants to protect and bring back United States traditions, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power concerning the states. They want to simplify government and states rights.

The Republican Party was founded in 1854. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president to be elected in 1861.

Overall, the Republican Party is predominated by white men, people that live in rural areas, members of the Silent Generation (1928-1954) and Baby Boomers (1946-1964), and evangelical Christians, especially the white ones.

There are 36 million United States citizens under the Republican Party membership, according to a March 2021 ballot.

The United States conservative philosophy is a social and political philosophy. It supports individualism, American exceptionalism, American traditions, republicanism, moral universalism, Judeo-Christian values and is generally pro-capitalism and pro-business.

It is common for conservative people to advocate for free trade, and a strong national defense. And because of their Christian values, many conservative people are against abortion, same-sex marriage, and civil unions. It is also common that conservative people fight against communism (or what they believe that communism is), socialism, and moral relativism.

What conservatives want the most is to preserve the old ways of living, emphasizing a lot on individuals rights.

Conservatives are less supportive of compensatory approaches for those who have been marginalized in civil rights. That includes black people, immigrants, women, Indigenous people, and LGBT+ people.

To them, the federal government should provide to the states government. And it should not have importance in deciding what happens to the states. Every state has to government by itself, protecting the states political independence.

There are also the United States fiscal conservatives, a more political philosophy than social. And its most important and known idea is to minimize the size of federal and state government, which would minimize the governments role.

The income taxes for individuals and businesses should be minimized. And institutions just like the financial industry should be deregulated. Fiscal conservatives believe that a fully capitalist economy is the right way to go.

They believe that the governments role should be small. Meaning, many social services should become privatized, such as education, health insurance, retirement investments, security, and more.

The Republicans believe in almost the same things that the conservatives do. The free market, individualism, Judeo-Christian values, American exceptionalism, republicanism, American traditions, a strong national defense, free trade, limited government, and states rights are supported by Republicans.

Theyre, overall, against abortion, moral relativism, socialism, communism, Marxism, civil unions, and same-sex marriage.

Theyre also opposed to compensatory approaches to marginalized groups. These groups include immigrants (especially the Latin ones), black and Asian people, women, LGBT+ people, Indigenous people, etc.

Republicans not all of them are against higher tax rates for higher earners. They believe that this is unfair since the richer are supposedly the ones that create jobs and wealth for the country.

They are against a single-payer health care system. And they believe that is better for the private sector to help poor people through charity than the government to help them through welfare programs and social assistance programs.

No. Conservatives are part of the right-wing. However, the right-wing has more philosophies and political visions than only the conservative.

Inside the right-wing party, you can find nationalists, fascists, classical liberals, the far-right, Christian democrats, and the conservatives.

The New Right that came from the political views after the Cold War is based on the following values: free market, individual initiative, small government, and liberal conservatism.

According to the British academics Roger Eatwell and Nol OSullivan, the right is divided into five types: reactionary, moderate, radical, extreme, and new that I already explained.

The reactionary right is the one that values the past a lot, wanting to keep those old aristocratic, religious, and authoritarian values.

The moderate right can tolerate change if its gradual. It accepts some aspects of liberalism, and sometimes can even be confused with liberalism itself. The moderate right is known for its love for capitalism, nationalism and it can promote social welfare policies.

The radical right is a term created after World War II events, and some of the biggest examples of it are the following ideologies: Thatcherism, McCarthyism, the John Birch Society, and the German Republican Party (Republikaner Party).

Finally, the extreme right is most known for these 4 traits: anti-democracy, nationalism, racism, and strong state.

There are multiple types of research and articles trying to find in what side fascism is.

Overall, its believed that this ideology is part of the far-right, being an example of its extremist belief. However, some historians believe that this ideology does not belong on any side, it kind of has a side of its own.

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Republican vs Conservative: What's the Difference? - Differencely

House passes bill to protect same-sex marriage, moves to Senate vote

All Democratic members of Congress along with 47 Republicans voted for the bill which would codify into law protections for same-sex marriage.

Patrick Colson-Price, USA TODAY

Three of Iowa's four U.S. representatives voted Tuesday to protect the right to same-sex and interracial marriages, as Democrats seek to protect constitutional rights they fear are at risk from the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. Reps. Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Cindy Axne voted forthe Respect for Marriage Act, which passed the House on a 267-157 vote Tuesday night. Axne is a Democrat and Hinson and Miller-Meeks are Republicans. In all, 47 Republicans joined Democrats to vote in favor of the bill.

Rep. Randy Feenstra, a Republican who represents Iowa's 4th Congressional District, voted against the legislation.

The Respect for Marriage Act would require the federal government torecognize marriages as long as they were valid in the state where the marriage took place. It also bans states from denying recognition to out-of-state marriages based on the sex, race, ethnicity or origin of those getting married.

The new legislation would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman. That lawis still on the books but was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015, when it held same-sex marriage was a constitutional right.

More: House votes to codify same-sex marriage, fearing Supreme Court revisiting 2015 decision

Congressional Democrats are moving to hold votes protecting the rights to same-sex and interracial marriage and contraception afterthe U.S. Supreme Court last month overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated the nationwide right to an abortion. Democrats fear the high court may roll back other rights established via court decision and are moving to codify them into law.

In his concurrence in the case overturning Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas called on the Supreme Court to "reconsider" other rights established by the high court, including the right to contraception, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage. No other justice joined Thomas' concurrence, but it sparked alarm among Democrats.

The House has already voted for a bill that would codify abortion rights into law in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned. Axne, of West Des Moines,was the only member of Iowa's House delegation to vote in favor of that legislation.

Axne issued a statement Tuesday saying "marriage equality is under threat" and citing Thomas' opinion.

"Today I voted yes on the Respect for Marriage Act to enshrine marriage equality in federal law and ensure same-sex and interracial marriages will continue to be recognized," Axne said in a statement. "I will continue fighting in Congress to protect these rights."

More: Kim Reynolds, Chuck Grassley tout abortion court win at conservative Christian event

Hinson, ofMarion, issued a statement urging Democrats to turn their focus to economic issues like addressing inflation and high gas prices.

"I voted for the Respect for Marriage Act, legislation that respects & maintains settled law," Hinson wrote on Twitter."Now, Democrats need to focus on policies that will help families: lowering costs for groceries & gas, securing our border to keep our communities safe & getting our economy working again."

Feenstra, of Hull, and Miller-Meeks, ofOttumwa, did not issue statements about their votes.

Iowa was the third state in the nationto legalize same-sex marriage, via a unanimous 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision in the case of Varnum v. Brien.

That decision prompted conservatives to mount a campaign against three of the court's justices who faced retention elections in 2010. All three justices were ousted.

Iowa's high court also ruled abortion was a fundamental right in 2018, but overturned that decision this year.

It's not clear if the marriage legislation has enough support to pass in the U.S. Senate and ultimately become law. The legislation would need at least 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, and Democrats currently hold 50 seats.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican, downplayed the possibility that the Supreme Court could revisit the right to same-sex marriage.

"Well, the right to gay marriage is not currently an issue simply because one justice mentioned it very briefly in a previous decision in a concurrence that he wrote," Grassley said. "It takes more than just one justice to consider the case. I'm also not aware of any pending challenges to any of the other decisions that this bill agrees with."

"But I do want you to know that I'm going to read the text in the House bill, and we'll wait and see if that is going to come up in the United States Senate," he .

Brendan Conley, a spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican, said Ernst "is keeping a very open mind about this legislation" and plans to read and review the bill's text if it is brought up in the Senate.

"I have a good number of very close friends that are same-sex married," Ernsttold national reporters Wednesday.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

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Two Republican Iowa lawmakers join Democrats in voting to protect same ...

The tweet comes after Cox clinched a victory in his primary battle on Tuesday, defeating former state Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz, a moderate who was backed by Hogan. Cox could face Wes Moore, a political newcomer and bestselling author backed by Oprah Winfrey, as his Democratic opponent in the general election.

Coxs win was praised by Trump loyalists and is being viewed by some as part of a broader battle between two competing visions for the party.

Trump was among those who praised the victory, and he also took aim at Hogan just before the race was called, saying: RINO Larry Hogans Endorsement doesnt seem to be working out so well for his heavily favored candidate. Next, Id love to see Larry run for President!

But the win also excited some on the other side of the aisle, after the campaign got a boost from an unlikely source: the Democratic Governors Association, which touted Coxs pro-Trump record and policies in a strategy aimed at making Democratic candidates more desirable in the general election.

Ultimately, Democrats want to run against the weakest candidate, Democratic strategist Don Calloway said on MSNBC on Wednesday, saying that Cox is crazy enough to be repulsive to the moderate or undecided voter.

A Trump loyalist, Cox called former Vice President Mike Pence a traitor after he certified election results for Joe Biden during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. Cox also reportedly arranged buses to Trumps Jan. 6 rally, where the then-president urged his supporters to march to the Capitol.

Coxs positions have raised tensions with more moderate members of the party, including Hogan.

During the early days of the pandemic, Cox called for the governors impeachment over stay-at-home orders and other measures aimed at stopping the spread of Covid-19. Cox alluded to the rivalry during his victory speech on Tuesday.

We will never again give over our bodies, our churches and our businesses to a lockdown state, Cox said.

Hogan, who has served two terms, remains highly popular in a state where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 2-to-1. A recent poll from Goucher College showed that 84 percent of Democrats would not consider supporting Cox during the general election.

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Larry Hogan snubs Republican victor in Maryland, escalating Trump proxy war - POLITICO

WASHINGTON One hundred million Americans from Arizona to Boston are under heat emergency warnings, and the drought in the West is nearing Dust Bowl proportions. Britain declared a climate emergency as temperatures soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and parts of blistering Europe are ablaze.

But on Capitol Hill this week, Republicans were warning against rash action in response to the burning planet.

I dont want to be lectured about what we need to do to destroy our economy in the name of climate change, said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

One Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, last week blocked what could have been the countrys most far-reaching American response to climate change. But lost in the recriminations and finger-pointing is the other side of the aisle: All 50 Republicans in the Senate have been as opposed to decisive action to confront planetary warming.

Few Republicans in Congress now outwardly dismiss the scientific evidence that human activities the burning of oil, gas and coal have produced gases that are dangerously heating the Earth.

But for many, denial of the cause of global temperature rise has been replaced by an insistence that the solution replacing fossil fuels over time with wind, solar and other nonpolluting energy sources will hurt the economy.

In short, delay is the new denial.

Overwhelmingly, Republicans on Capitol Hill say that they believe that the United States should be drilling and burning more American oil, gas and coal, and that market forces would somehow develop solutions to the carbon dioxide that has been building in the atmosphere, trapping heat like a blanket around a sweltering Earth.

Im not in a position to tell you what the solution is, but for the president to shut down the production of oil and gas in the United States is not going to help, said Senator Mike Crapo, Republican of Idaho.

President Biden is not proposing to shut down fossil fuel production. He wants to use tax credits and other incentives to speed up the development of wind, solar, and other low-carbon energy, and to make electric vehicles more affordable.

The fact that scientists say nations must quickly cut greenhouse gas emissions or global rising temperatures will reach catastrophic levels does not appear to faze many conservatives.

In many ways, elected Republicans mirror the views of their voters. A May poll commissioned by Pew Research Center found 63 percent of Democrats named climate change as a very big problem, while just 16 percent of Republicans felt the same.

Build Back Better. Before being elected president in 2020, Joseph R. Biden Jr. articulated his ambitious vision for his administration under the slogan Build Back Better, promising to invest in clean energyand to ensure that procurement spending went toward American-made products.

A two-part agenda. March and April 2021:President Biden unveiled two plans that together formed the core of his domestic agenda: the American Jobs Plan, focused on infrastructure, and the American Families Plan, which included a variety of social policy initiatives.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Nov. 15, 2021: President Biden signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law,the result of months of negotiations. The president hailed the package, a pared-back version of what had been outlined in the American Jobs Plan, as evidence that U.S. lawmakers could still work across party lines.

The Democratic Party has made climate change a religion and their solutions are draconian, said Mr. Graham, who accepts the science of global warming. He is among a handful of Republicans who support putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions to encourage industries to clean up their operations.

But Mr. Graham dismissed Mr. Bidens goal of cutting U.S. emissions by half by 2030, to try keep average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels. Thats the threshold beyond which scientists say the likelihood of catastrophic impacts increases significantly. The planet has already warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius.

Mr. Graham repeated a common refrain among Republicans that it would be foolish for the United States, historically the country that has emitted the most carbon dioxide, to reduce its pollution unless other big polluters like China and India do the same.

The point to me is to get the world to participate, not just us, he said.

So it has gone with the Republican Party, where warnings of a catastrophe are mocked as hyperbole, where technologies that do not exist on a viable scale, such as carbon capture and storage and clean coal, are hailed as saviors. At the same time, those that do, such as wind and solar power and electric vehicles, are dismissed as unreliable and overly expensive. American leadership on a global problem is seen as a fools errand, kneecapping the domestic economy while Indian and Chinese coal bury Americas good intentions in soot.

When China gets our good air, their bad airs got to move, Herschel Walker, a former football star and now a Republican candidate in Georgia for the Senate, explained last week. So it moves over to our good air space. Then now weve got to clean that back up.

The partys political attacks often center on the symptoms of the climate crisis as they point to Central American climate refugees massing at the southern border, poor forest management as wildfires burn, and environmentalists who deprive farmers of water in record droughts.

For decades, Republicans and the fossil fuel industry denied the science of climate change. That has slowly started to change as the evidence that the Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate has become undeniable, and started to resonate with moderate and independent voters.

Last month Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, made public a conservative road map to address climate change. Lawmakers also have started a House Conservative Climate Caucus to discuss solutions that Republicans can support.

But Mr. McCarthys climate plan calls for increasing fossil fuel production. And last Thursday, when the Conservative Climate Caucus met with business executives to discuss climate change, the gathering was dominated by talk of more oil and gas drilling. Executives from fossil fuel companies also criticized new federal rules that require them to disclose their business risks from global warming, according to a Republican lawmaker who was at the meeting.

Denial used to be the way to delay, said Jon Krosnick, a social psychologist at Stanford University. Now, he said of Republican lawmakers theyve got to come up with some other way to delay.

Republicans involved in the issue say there has been clear movement from the day in 2015 when Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, brought a snowball to the Senate floor as evidence that global warming was a myth. Some Republicans privately acknowledge that bipartisan trips to see the glaciers melting in Greenland have settled any doubts they had about what is happening to the planet.

House Republicans have a series of incremental steps that they say they will pass if they win the majority in November: encouraging investments in American renewable energy and the restoration of forests and wetlands to absorb carbon dioxide. Senators Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, and Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, have proposed a carbon tariff on imports from countries that are doing less than the United States to stem climate change.

Yet many of those same lawmakers reject the idea that climate change is an urgent threat.

If Republicans win the House or Senate in Novembers midterm elections, I think you can expect a much more aggressive approach to domestic energy production, Mr. Cramer said this week. That doesnt mean we abandon climate as part of the agenda, but rather focus more on technologies that advance all forms of American energy.

One Republican senator, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, called on Tuesday for a reasonable transition to clean energy. Democrats, he said, are trying to move far more quickly than technology and the economy can absorb.

Republicans say Mr. Biden, pushed hard by uncompromising climate activists on the left, took such a maximalist approach to climate legislation that its collapse was inevitable.

The far left has screwed this up so badly that Republicans might actually enact the first real action on climate change, said Benjamin Backer, president of the American Conservation Coalition, a right-of-center environmental organization.

But even Republicans who are trying to address the effects of climate change in their home states appear to find it difficult to recognize the root cause of the problem. Last week, three Utah Republicans, Senator Mitt Romney and Representatives Chris Stewart and Burgess Owens, proposed legislation to save the shriveling Great Salt Lake before its dusty remains choke the capital city that shares its name.

But absent from the proposal which included Army Corps of Engineers monitoring programs, ecosystem management and potential technologies to redirect water, reinforce canals and address drought was any mention of climate change.

The same went for an appeal on Friday from Mr. McCarthy, to save the giant sequoias in his district from fire and drought. In an opinion piece he co-authored in Time, Mr. McCarthy blamed decades of fire suppression and misinformed policies for year-round forest fires in his state, obliquely referring to worsening drought conditions and extreme heat without once mentioning climate change.

One of his co-authors, Representative Scott Peters of California, a Democrat who helped draft the Save Our Sequoias bill, declined to say why climate change went unmentioned in the Time piece, but he did say, I wholeheartedly believe climate change is fueling catastrophic wildfires in the southwest. He added of the bill, As far as Im concerned, they can tell the world that birthday cakes are starting these fires as long as we get the damn thing to the presidents desk.

Republicans grappling with the undeniable reality of climate change still struggle with a philosophical aversion to intervening in energy markets or, they would most likely say, in any markets at all. Left unsaid are federal tax breaks totaling as much as $20 billion a year that the fossil fuel industry enjoys and that Republicans, and some Democrats, support.

Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina and a founding member of the Conservative Climate Caucus, said she recognized the policy imperative to address climate change. But she called tax credits to steer consumers to electric vehicles or electric utilities toward renewable energy sources like wind or solar power picking winners and losers. She said Congress should simply cut taxes and let consumers and businesses decide how to use the extra money.

Id personally love to buy an electric vehicle, so lets cut taxes for everybody and allow people to afford things they otherwise could not afford, she said.

In a back-and-forth on Tuesday with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, dismissed the administrations push for electric vehicles, saying the price was $55,000, beyond the reach of most Americans even with the presidents proposal for a $7,500 federal tax credit on some vehicles. Mr. Buttigieg replied that a Chevrolet Bolt costs $26,595, and electric pickup trucks like Chevy Silverado or Ford F150 Lightning start around $39,000. He added that he bought a used plug-in Ford C-Max hybrid with 15,000 miles on it for $14,000.

Bob Inglis, a former Republican House member who lost his 2010 primary in part because he backed climate action, insisted that his party had made huge progress since then.

Im convinced were going to act on climate change, Mr. Inglis said. Its just whether were going to act soon enough to avoid the worst consequences.

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Delay as the New Denial: The Latest Republican Tactic to Block Climate Action - The New York Times

Then-Republican Conference Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, flanked by House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, right, and Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise, criticizes Democrats' impeachment of then-President Donald Trump in December 2019. Now she is trying to convince the public that Trump is to blame for the Jan. 6 insurrection. Samuel Corum/Getty Images hide caption

Then-Republican Conference Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, flanked by House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, right, and Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise, criticizes Democrats' impeachment of then-President Donald Trump in December 2019. Now she is trying to convince the public that Trump is to blame for the Jan. 6 insurrection.

In the midst of former President Donald Trump's first impeachment, then-White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham says he called her into his office at the front of Air Force One. He had been watching one of the hearings and didn't like what he saw.

"He screamed at me, lots of expletives, told me how useless I was," she said. Her sin: "not enough people were on TV defending him."

Despite the former president's apparent dissatisfaction, in 2019 and early 2020 there was a wide-reaching, highly coordinated effort to defend him in the court of public opinion. That isn't the case now, as the House Select Committee on January 6th wraps up its series of summer hearings in prime time Thursday night.

Republican leaders boycotted the hearings, so unlike Trump's televised impeachment trials, viewers haven't seen a vigorous defense of his actions from the dais. And there's not much of a broader outside defense of Trump, either.

During the first impeachment, over Trump's withholding of military assistance to Ukraine and efforts to strong-arm the country's leader into launching an investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, the Republican National Committee, congressional Republicans, outside groups, the Trump campaign and a large team at the White House all had a coordinated strategy.

"The president had a dedicated White House staff of press relations people and communications people and lawyers to put together rapid responses," said Steven Groves, who as a deputy press secretary worked on Trump's impeachment defense.

Outside groups ran dozens of TV ads targeting members of Congress over impeachment and defending Trump, calling it "the radical left's impeachment obsession" and a "witch hunt" and a "travesty." There were nonstop cable hits from Trump-friendly surrogates and regular press conferences at the Capitol.

At a press conference in late September 2019, none other than Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney came to Trump's defense.

"Ever since President Trump was elected, the House Democrats have been careening from impeachment theory to impeachment theory," she said in her capacity as a member of the House Republican leadership. "But what we see repeatedly is a complete lack of focus on concern about evidence and facts."

Today, excommunicated from leadership for her criticism of Trump and Jan. 6, Cheney is vice chair of the House select committee, arguing Trump is a threat to democracy. But other congressional Republicans, still in his corner, simply aren't defending Trump in the same way they did during the first impeachment.

A decision by Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House, not to name anyone to the committee means the Jan. 6 hearings are a one-sided presentation of evidence, more like a grand jury proceeding than a trial. They are nothing like a traditional congressional hearing with the whiplash of representatives from both parties scoring partisan points and asking leading questions. But the sorts of press conferences led by Trump allies in Congress that were standard during impeachment have all but disappeared along with the flood of cable appearances.

"There hasn't been as much of a sort of day-to-day focus from the congressional members who go on Fox as there was in the past," said Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at the progressive group Media Matters for America. Part of the reason for that, he said, is they aren't on the committee, so they don't have insight to add about the committee's inner workings and they don't have clips of explosive hearing exchanges to talk around.

"Fox News and others in the right wing media are spending less time engaging on a point-by-point basis than they did, say, during Donald Trump's first impeachment," said Gertz, whose job is to closely monitor the conservative media ecosystem.

And there isn't a defense during the commercial breaks, either. An analysis from the tracking firm AdImpact found more than 120 different anti-impeachment ads in 2019 and 2020. Some were from candidates, including Trump, but most were from outside groups. This time around there have been fewer than 20 ads mentioning the Jan. 6 investigation and those are mostly ads for primary candidates running against anti-Trump Republicans.

Groves says a big reason for the lower-octane public defense is simply that Trump is no longer president. The infrastructure that was around the president doesn't exist for the post-presidency.

"It's just not there anymore," said Groves. "He can't even go on Twitter and rapid-response on his own."

Trump was kicked off of Twitter on the day of the riot at the Capitol.

Other than a skeleton crew of staff working for Trump in his post-presidential office, who didn't respond to a request for comment, there's no one whose job it is to publicly defend him. Doug Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee, says there's no reason the RNC should be going to bat for him, especially with the midterms coming.

"The RNC and Republicans on Capitol Hill know they are poised for a great election year and what's the biggest thing that could be a hurdle to that? Donald Trump, who is not their principal anymore," Heye said. "So it's not their job to defend him and sometimes you just don't want to defend the indefensible."

A big argument from Trump allies is that these hearings are one-sided and dull. Filling inboxes and airwaves with rapid response messaging could undermine that argument.

"We really prepared for this epic battle and we also prepared for it to be a dud," said Matt Schlapp, who runs the pro-Trump group CPAC. It created a "J6Facts" Twitter account, which has about 2,000 followers now, and hired extra consultants, Schlapp said.

"It was a little dramatic in the beginning but over time it's been more of a dud," he said.

Of course, he has a reason to say that. When he is invited to appear on Fox News and its competitors, Schlapp largely discusses inflation, immigration and crime, themes that are getting a lot more airtime than the hearings, and that Republicans see as a winning message for the midterms.

Schlapp says the stakes just feel lower with these hearings than they did with impeachment because "They can't do anything to the president. They can't prevent him from running."

If the hearings break through, with no coordinated defense of Trump's reputation, it could hurt his chances should he run for president again.

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With midterms in sight, few Republicans are defending Trump as they did in 2019 - NPR

Rusty Bowers, the Arizona house speaker who testified to the January 6 committee about how he resisted Donald Trumps attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the sun belt state, has been formally censured by his own Republican party.

Kelli Ward, chair of the Arizona Republican party, said on Tuesday its executive committee formally censured Rusty Bowers tonight he is no longer a Republican in good standing and we call on Republicans to replace him at the ballot box in the August primary.

Ward released a copy of the formal censure, which included killing all meaningful election integrity bills among Bowers alleged misdeeds and called on Arizona voters to expel him permanently from office.

Bowers testified to the House January 6 committee on 21 June. Discussing Trumps claim that Bowers told him the Arizona election was rigged, Bowers said: Anyone, anywhere, anytime I said the election was rigged, that would not be true.

Bowers also recalled a conversation with Rudy Giuliani in which Trumps personal lawyer, a key player in the attempt to prove mass electoral fraud, allegedly said: Weve got lots of theories but we just dont have the evidence.

Bowers also spoke about how his Christian faith motivated his defiance of Trump, and described threats made to his safety by Trump supporters while his daughter lay mortally ill.

Like Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the January 6 committee and its vice-chair, Bowers was given a Profile in Courage award for his resistance to Trump.

After the hearing at which he appeared, though, it emerged that Bowers had previously told the Associated Press: If [Trump] is the nominee [in 2024], if he was up against [Joe] Biden, Id vote for him again. Simply because what he did the first time, before Covid, was so good for the country. In my view it was great.

This month, Bowers told the Deseret News he might have changed his mind.

I dont want the choice of having to look at [Trump] again, he said. And if it comes, Ill be hard pressed. I dont know what Ill do.

But Im not inclined to support him. Because he doesnt represent my party. He doesnt represent the morals and the platform of my party

That guy is just hes his own party. Its a party of intimidation and I dont like it. So Im not going to be boxed by, Who am I gonna vote for? Because thats between me and God. But Im not happy with him.

And Im not happy with the thought that a robust primary cant produce somebody better than Trump, for crying out loud.

He also told Business Insider: Much of what [Trump] has done has been tyrannical, especially of late. I think that there are elements of tyranny that anybody can practice on any given day, and I feel like Ive seen a lot of it.

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Arizona Republican censured by party over testimony on resisting Trump - The Guardian US